I received several letters, one of which started this thread several days before it was posted here.

Surprised anyone is surprised. This type of thing has been standard behavior that has been validated and endorsed by Jeff and his predecessors’ Flt. Ops. management team, for many years now. The first reaction of management will always be that the airplane is not yours until the door is closed. If you do any jumpseating or non-reving at all, it’s rather common and in no way is it unique to either CAL or UAL. Not every agent chooses to behave this way, but those that do seem to act with impunity. Whose fault is that? It’s not really a union issue in my opinion. The best thing to do? Remain calm and WRITE. Without documentation of procedural violations and excessive behavioral deviations, this sort of BS will never change and will never go away, because it’s a non-cost item. MAKE IT A COST ITEM. Stay in the cockpit and make it the “must get fixed or we can’t push” deal of the day. Documentation and delays will swing your perception of the balance of power.

For those of you claiming the erosion of Captains authority, I’m not so sure. Is it an attack? Yes, but erosion? Not until endorsed by management and/or the court system. I guarantee you one thing; the day I am ever threatened to “fly or go to jail” will be the first day I willingly get arrested. It will also be the day before I hire the absolute best wrongful termination/wrongful arrest attorney team that money can buy, there-by paving the way to the comfortable retirement that I had envisioned when I started this miserable career a long time ago. Unless that is, as Lambourne suggests, I did something that caused me to be arrested. Where there’s smoke there’s fire?

Our new MGT team brings with it a long history that includes full knowledge of how easily they can lose a big fight like this in the courts. Their failure to keep employee groups and policies from attacking individuals has cost them plenty in the past. (i.e. ANC divert/pilot fatigue/rest rules case, DEN elevator falsified sexual harassment claim, just to name a few). Given this knowledge, they KNOW they don’t dare turn their back on written documentation provided by a Captain at the airline. You may feel like you have no authority, but thanks to professional images portrayed by the likes of Captain Sullenberger, I guarantee you when you are sworn in by a judge and he has you state your name and title for a jury, if handled professionally, you will wield more authority than needed to win a huge settlement in a case like this, but you have to have acted professionally along the way.

This is a nonevent. If the Captain stepped on his private parts here it’s unfortunate. I wish him the best of luck and hope the rest of us learn something from whatever the outcome.